1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to terminal assemblies of alternators for vehicles and, more particularly, to a method of manufacturing a terminal assembly of an alternator for vehicles and a terminal assembly manufactured by the method, which includes a first step of notching and piercing a blank plate, a second step of deep-drawing the notched portions of the plate to form a plurality of assembly protrusions, each of which has a cylindrical shape that is open at opposite ends thereof and protrudes from the plate, a third step of trimming and piercing the plate to give it a predetermined shape, and a fourth step of coining and bending the plate, thus forming the terminal assembly, and in which the assembly protrusions are integrated together through a plastic molding process, so that, although the planar terminal assembly is relatively thin, its resistance to vertical or horizontal vibration is increased, compared to the conventional art.
2. Description of the Related Art
As well known to those skilled in the art, three-phase alternators, which are typically called alternators, have been widely used as generators for vehicles in order to increase the amount of voltage generated at low speed and to ensure stable performance at high speed. Such a three-phase alternator for a vehicle is coupled to a crank shaft of the engine of the vehicle by a belt and serves to charge a battery using power generated by the operation of the engine.
FIG. 1 illustrates a representative alternator for vehicles. As shown in FIG. 1, the conventional alternator 100 includes a rotor assembly 110, which generates magnetomotive force, a brush assembly 120, which supplies electric current to the rotor assembly 110, a stator assembly 130, which generates induced electromotive force using the generated magnetomotive force, and housings 140 and 180, which support the above components at opposing positions. The alternator 100 further includes a regulator 150, which adjusts the intensity of a rotor system, a rectifier assembly 160, which rectifies AC to DC, and a pulley 170, which receives rotating force from the outside (the engine).
As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the rectifier assembly 160, which is provided in the housing 180, has a structure such that a terminal assembly 160a, to which a diode lead wire and a stator lead wire are connected, and a heat sink 160b for heat dispassion, are stacked to have a stacked plate shape.
However, because the terminal assembly having a planar plate shape must be bent to connect the diode lead wire or the stator lead wire to the terminal assembly, fatigue fracture occurs at the bent portions of the terminal assembly due to vibration. In addition, there is a problem in that the diode lead wire is bent during the assembly process so that the assembly of the diode lead wire with the terminal assembly becomes unstable.
Furthermore, because the terminal assembly has the bent shape, the process of manufacturing the terminal assembly and the shape thereof are complex. In addition, for the above reasons, the terminal assembly has poor resistance to vibration. To reinforce the terminal assembly, the thickness of the terminal assembly must be increased. This results in a problem of increasing the costs of manufacturing the terminal assembly.